Thailand has climbed one spot to 28th on the Institute for Management Development’s 2021 world competitiveness rankings, three spots behind ASEAN neighbor Malaysia and nine spots ahead of Indonesia in the global rankings.

Switzerland-based IMD attributed Thailand’s gains to improvements in labour market indicators, a low government deficit and recently enacted pro-business legislation; the organization also noted Thailand’s gains in scientific infrastructure, including an increase in scientific academic research publications, confidence express by Thai business managers on the collaboration between academia and the private sector and increased protection of intellectual property rights.

Thailand’s improved showing on the global stage will likely lead lead to an increased interest in – and scrutiny of – the country’s intellectual property regime and practice. With this in mind, we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of 50 Thailand IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.

Today’s clients are looking for more than just a degree from a top-notch university and a couple of decades of practice. In order to be an outstanding provider of intellectual property advice, a lawyer must also be capable of understanding how intellectual property impacts the rest of his client’s business, and be able to provide practical, real-world, business-savvy advice. She must be able to provide sound advice on the current law, but also needs to be able to understand coming trends which are likely to impact her client’s business.

Unlike days past when she might have played just a bit role, today’s IP Expert is every bit a full-fledged team member.

Thailand’s intellectual property market features several major players, and lawyers from those firms dominate our list: Tilleke & Gibbins led all firms, having eight lawyers named to our list, while Baker McKenzie landed six lawyers on the list. Domnern Somgiat & Boonma and Satyapon & Partners each scored five, while Rouse put four on the list.

But while big firms may have the lion’s share of the international IP market, Bangkok is also a place where a hard-working small or mid-size firm can also see great success. In fact, 16 different firms placed between one and three lawyers on the list, showing both the depth and the breadth of the skill of the country’s IP Experts.

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Thailand IP Experts.

Thailand’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Thailand, Asia and around the world, as well as Thailand-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of editorial team at Asia IP, which has more than 40 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Thailand’s legal market.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Thailand were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process.

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.